About Stephen Nielsen

I'm an author, a self publisher, and a painting contractor. I live in beautiful Minnesota, USA . Welcome to my blog site.

Choosing Trouble

Posted on April 10, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

Choosing Trouble Instead of Comfort

Waiting On God

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

Yielding in Prayer: Yielding to Waiting on God or To Impatience?

Yielding to Prayer or Slumber

Posted on April 8, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

What Do We Yield To, Prayer or Slumber

Yielding: To Jesus or the World

Posted on April 7, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

What Do We Yield To, Jesus or the World?

Yielding: To obedience or Disobedience

Posted on April 5, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

What Do You Yield To As A Christian? Obedience or Disobedience — Romans 6:16

Yielding in Prayer

Posted on April 4, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

How to Yield in Prayer — 3 Points

Doctrines of Demons, The Screwtape Letters — Part 3

Posted on April 3, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

Doctrines of Demons, from C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters – Part 3

The following points are from notes I took while reading C. S. Lewis’ book, The Screwtape Letters. The book is a compilation of thirty-one letters from a demon named Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood. In it Screwtape gives instructions to his nephew on how to seduce and take down certain humans, mostly new Christians. I think it is an excellent manual on the doctrine of demons (but of course, it is according to one human’s perspective, C. S. Lewis; hence, we can’t be sure it is perfectly accurate). The following points are ways the demons will draw a person over to the evil path.

They (the demons) make it their business to get us away from the eternal present and into the past or the future; both of which will cause us anxiety.
(p. 72) They say that if a human can’t be cured of church going, send him to other churches more lacking in faith and that are more party churches. The more lukewarm he is the better.
On gluttony. They desire that the belly dominate the whole life of the human.
In gluttony, they say that excess of food is less powerful than wanting (lusting after) certain tastes of food. They say that this is a good preparation for attacks on chastity.
They feed us the lie that “being in love” is the only ground for marriage and if lost the marriage will no longer be binding.
They will try to persuade a Christian to marry someone who will be difficult.
They may try to persuade a single human that chastity is unhealthy; and they will try to use unchastity to land a desirable marriage.
(p. 93) They will try to direct men to more desirable (sexual) woman.
They will prepare the human for sexual temptation by darkening his intellect (fill it with deceptions).
They will fill the human with ideas that “my time is my own.” And when anyone invades his time he is angered.
They fill men’s beliefs with false ideas that they “own” their bodies.
(p. 101) They are revulsed at the pleasures that God gives His own, especially young couples in love.
(p. 107) They want believers to treat Jesus only as a great man, but not someone who is divine. This will destroy their devotional life.
(p. 110) They will continue to haunt a good person until they find a chink in their armor—to create in them pride or bitterness or lust.
(p. 115) They want a Christian to be of a mind of “Christian and.” That is, to add something to their faith, like psychology, or faith healing, or vegetarianism, etc.
Instead of asking the question: “Is it righteous, or is it prudent?” they would rather we ask, “Is it in accordance with the general movement of our time?” As a result, they have a better chance to bend our thoughts to what they want for us.

Doctrines of Demons, from the Screwtape Letters — Part 2

Posted on April 2, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

Doctrines of Demons, from C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters – Part 2

(p 36) They know that it is during the low periods (more than the high periods) that we will grow.
They know that our prayers offered up in a state of dryness are those that most please God.
They realize that we learn to walk in the Lord when God takes His hands off us—and He is pleased even when we stumble. (But He will not let us be cast down, Ps 34:24).
(p 40) They know that the low periods in humans provide an excellent opportunity for sexual temptation.
They realize that humans are stronger when they read more (keep knowledge flowing).
(p 49) They say consisting scoffers are progressing toward Satan. They are glad when we do this.
As for humor, they encourage virtue as funny and ridiculous.
(p 53) They will introduce a change of direction in the young believer—but they do not want him to suspect where he is headed—downhill!
They will encourage him to dislike any religious duties and prayers.
They know that pleasure temptations cut off real happiness.
They seek to have him waste his time doing menial things for long periods of time: TV watching, etc. They want him to avoid healthy and outgoing activities.
They want him not to do what he likes to do.
They want to steal away a person’s best years.
They know that the best thing they can do is separate the human from the enemy (God).
(p 57) They recognize when humans repent and are renewed, and they are discouraged by it.
They know that there are times when they can’t get through—due to the fact that God is directly present with them.
(p 58) They count it a defeat when the human reads books they enjoy and does things they enjoy, like nature walks, etc.
They count it a defeat when the human abandons his self-will.
They will try to eradicate from a person his personal hobbies—all things he enjoys, because they will be a source of innocence and humility and self-forgetfulness. They will endeavor to force upon them more “important things”, more “righteous things,” things that if not accomplished will be a great source of guilt and an entrance for sin.
They are in favor of getting the human to not apply things that they read—to keep it out of his will. They are in favor of keeping them from developing habits.
(p 62) They hate it when we stop thinking of our virtues—thinking of how good we are becoming. They want us to think of how humble we are, how wise we are, so that we become proud. They love to see us become proud.
They want us to endlessly think upon ourselves.
They know that God wants us to think of all humans as glorious and excellent, so they try to remove this truth from us. But they may try to get us to think too much of ourselves and putting ourselves above others.
They want us to continually think of our sins—how bad we are, instead of thinking of the Saviors love and forgiveness.
(p. 67) They want us to be tortured by fears.
They know that God wants us to live in eternity or in the present. For in our meditation with God in the present, time touches eternity and God brings us in union with Him.

Doctrines of Demons, from The Screwtape Letters

Posted on March 31, 2025 by Stephen Nielsen

Doctrines of Demons, from C. S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters

The following points are from notes I took while reading C. S. Lewis’ book, The Screwtape Letters. The book is a compilation of thirty-one letters from a demon named Screwtape to his nephew Wormwood. In it Screwtape gives instructions to his nephew on how to seduce and take down certain humans, mostly new Christians. I think it is an excellent manual on the doctrine of demons (but of course, it is according to one human’s perspective, C. S. Lewis; hence, we can’t be sure it is perfectly accurate). The following points, in three parts, are ways the demons will draw a person over to the evil path.

They (the demons) want us to stay clear of arguments (or debates) because they will awaken reason; they prefer jargon.
They prefer we read about and speak of experiences over teaching—that is, the demons will try to draw a person into stories rather than sound teaching in order to convince a person to go the wrong way.
They prefer casual talking over science.
(p 11) They want to keep our mind hazy, not to have a clear mind, esp. for the new converts.
They want to keep us disappointed in ourselves.
They want us to depend on our emotions, so we will be easier to tempt.
They want us to be wondering what other people in our church are like, and what they do secretly.
They want us to think of ourselves as very religious and humble, better than most.
They will try to produce in people mutual annoyances.
(p 16) They want us to pray not about bodily pain but over sins—so to remind us of our sins.
They work on things that irritate—tone of voice, twitches, things that the other dislikes.
(p 20) They want to keep us from serious prayer.
They would rather we pray our childhood, parrot-like prayers.
They would rather we not pray directly to God but to our soul to have a “spirit of love.”
Instead of true prayer, they would rather we try to produce in ourselves certain desired feelings—that we try to feel forgiven.
Instead of praying to God in heaven, they would rather we pray to a picture of Christ or to a cross.
(p 24) The goal for them is to secure the soul of humans to the devil.
Their business is to undermine faith and to prevent the formation of virtues.
Their refreshment is to produce any fear and suffering, but in the end it must also bring their soul to the devil.
They may reason that it is better (for the dark side) for humans to die in costly nursing homes that to die in wars.
(p 28) They want us to be filled with uncertainty and contradictory pictures of the future.
They want our prayers to be drawn away from the Father and unto ourselves.
They want our mind to go toward itself and to insults, or to a woman’s body (to lust).
(p 32) Their policy for now is to conceal themselves.
They say that they are helped when they are perceived as comic figures.
They want religious meetings, pamphlets, movements, causes, to matter more for us than our prayers.